A leading archaeologist recently explained that the pharaoh’s curse – which supposedly caused the deaths of those who dared to disturb ancient tombs – was actually a simple case of built-up germs.
Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of state for antiquities, recently told the US Sun that the mythical curse does not exist while offering advice to modern archaeologists on how to avoid the fatal fate.
The curse has long been believed to befall anyone who disturbs the remains of an ancient Egyptian mummy, including the man who broke open Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Among them was Lord Carnarvon, the financial backer of the search for Tutankhamun, who died five months after opening the tomb in 1923 from an infected mosquito bite he cut while shaving.
Others include the American financier George Jay Gould, who died of pneumonia after viewing the tomb in 1923, Sir Archibald Douglass Reid, who died after an X-ray of the mummy in London and the American archaeologist James Henry Breasted, who died in 1935 due to an infection after his last trip to Egypt in 1935, according to a 2022 Washington Post report.
British archaeologist Howard Carter died 17 years after the discovery of Hodgkin’s disease, although the media at the time was still caught up in the curse frenzy, according to the newspaper.
Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon with Tutankhamun’s Coffin. Heritage Image via Getty Images
Hawass insists that there is a scientific reason behind the untimely death.
“When you have a mummy in a grave, it has germs that you can’t see,” he told The Sun, adding. “Archaeologists in the past, they were in a hurry and they got into the grave and they got germs and they died.”
Hawass said he avoided a similar fate by leaving newly opened tombs for 30 minutes to disinfect, citing a recent expedition.
Howard Carter, British Egyptologist, near the golden sarcophagus of Tutankhamun in Egypt in 1922. Getty Images
“Just two weeks ago I found a closed sarcophagus, weighing 25 tons about 60 feet underground,” he explained to The Sun. “The sarcophagus lid is about six tons. Two workers started to open it for me, to raise the lid, then I could put my head and see what was inside.
“When they opened it, I left it open for half an hour so the bad air would go out and the fresh air would come in and I put my head down and there was nothing. That is the pharaoh’s curse.”
When asked if the curse was caused by an ancient germ, Hawass replied, “Exactly.”
Hawass explained that when the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb was made, exclusive rights were given to the London Times, leaving other journalists to let speculation run wild.
“Then the other journalists can’t write anything,” he said. “But when Lord Carnarvon died five months after the discovery, they made up a lot of stories about curses that weren’t true.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
